Letters to the Editor for Tuesday, March 26

Tuesday

Mar 26, 2013 at 12:01 AMMar 26, 2013 at 12:10 AM

Why justice act decisions are right

My heart goes out to those Fayetteville families who have lost loved ones to murder. I understand their frustration with the Racial Justice Act, which has been applied to four cases in which convicted murderers had their death sentences commuted to life in prison without the possibility of parole.

Still, knowing our state's racist history, in which the vast majority of all state executions have been African American men (many for burglary), I support the Racial Justice Act as a necessary legal tool to protect defendants from racial discrimination. Those four people were removed from death row because their trials were racially biased. That is unjust.

While I grieve the suffering of Olivia Turner, who lost her son, Roy Turner Jr., to murder, I disagree with her comment in the Observer that the man convicted of killing her son, Quintel Augustine, has received a punishment equivalent to "tapping people on the wrist for doing many horrific crimes." A lifetime of incarceration in a maximum-security prison, forever segregated from loved ones, is no slap on the wrist.

A recent statement from MVFR says in part: "Instead of putting more precious resources into capital punishment, MVFR urges North Carolina legislators to better fund victims' services, increase access to compensation, and provide law enforcement with the tools they need to prevent and solve crime."

Patrick O'Neill, Garner Officials ignore concern for people

Our national government has been a big disappointment in the last few years. Lately, it seems to be trying to establish a new low as to concern for the individual. Confusion at a level I've never seen, mind-boggling inefficiency, maddening party contention. A great loss of respect for the United States has resulted.

Al Brafford, Hope Mills

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